Entrepreneur and Author Peter A. Thiel spoke at a luncheon sponsored by the Independent Institute on January 27, 2015. He shared insights from his new book Zero to One on how to create true innovations in the world of atomsnot just digits and bitsand how to foster a peaceful, prosperous and freer future marked by globalization in a world of limited resources.

Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism: A special evening with our "Challenge of Liberty Summer Seminars" students and featured by C-SPAN's Book TV. Watch this eye-opening, timely discussion on the recent revelations of systematic government spyingincluding NSA accessing of phone records, USPS photocopying the exterior of all mail, and the dangers posed to liberty and security by these and other such unchecked and unconstitutional powers.

Was George W. Bush the worst president ever? Ivan Eland examines Bushs presidency and those of his predecessors to determine if their policies promoted peace, prosperity, and liberty while upholding the Constitution they swore to protect.

Did the United States test an anti-satellite weapon when it shot down an out-of-control spy satellite earlier this month? Or was it a precautionary measure to protect people on the ground who might have been hit with a fuel tank filled with a poisonous gas?

The great question of Pearl Harbor: what did U.S. government officials know and when did they know it? Ithas been argued for years. After decades of Freedom of Information Act requests, Robert Stinnett was finally able to examine the long-hidden evidence, shattering every shibboleth of Pearl Harbor. He finds that not only was the attack expected, it was deliberately provoked through an eight-step program devised by the Navy for President Franklin Roosevelt. Could Pearl Harbor have neither been an "accident" nor a mere "failure" of U.S. intelligence nor a "brilliant" Japanese military coup? Could the tragedy at Pearl Harbor have been a carefully orchestrated design, initiated at the highest government levels in order to galvanize a peace-loving American public to go to war? Robert Stinnett will discuss this startling issue in detail.

Robert B. Stinnett

Former Journalist, Oakland Tribune and BBC.

Author of the books, George Bush: His World War II Years and Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor.

The 20th Century has witnessed state-sponsored carnage on an unprecedented scale. What made this era so susceptible to Hitlers Final Solution, Stalins Gulag, Maos Great Leap Forward, Pol Pots killing fields, and other atrocities? Does the answer lie in the rogue ideologies that found acceptance among societys intellectual elitesisms that elevated the dictates of the State over the rights of the individual and the institutions of civil society? Celebrated historian Robert Conquest discusses the rise of these ideologiesand how to protect the 21st Century from their destructive grip.